Intermediaries and Motor Carriers – perspective from the United States - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Intermediaries and Motor Carriers – perspective from the United States. Prasad Sharma Senior Vice President and General Counsel American Trucking Associations, Inc. The Role of Intermediaries.

Copyright Complaint Adult Content Flag as Inappropriate

I am the owner, or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of the copyrighted work described.

Download Presentation

PowerPoint Slideshow about 'Intermediaries and Motor Carriers – perspective from the United States' - almira

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation

Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author.While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server.

“The interstate shipment of goods is a complicated business. Moving a given quantity of goods from one part of the country to another frequently involves several unrelated carriers using different modes of transportation, ranging from trucks, railroads, and freighters to the occasional plane. Locating and contracting with multiple carriers for a multistate shipment may be prohibitively expensive for the average shipper. So third parties fill the gap by negotiating lower rates with a number of carriers around the country and selling their logistical services to would-be shippers.” – REI Transp., Inc. v. C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc., 519 F.3d 693 (7th Cir. 2008)

Broker – A person, other than a motor carrier or an employee or agent of a motor carrier, that as a principal or agent sells, offers for sale, negotiates for, or holds itself out by solicitation, advertisement or otherwise as selling, providing, or arranging for, transportation by motor carrier for compensation – 49 U.S.C. § 13102(2).

Broker - a person who, for compensation, arranges, or offers to arrange, the transportation of property by an authorized motor carrier. Motor carriers, or persons who are employees or bona fide agents of carriers, are not brokers within the meaning of this section when they arrange or offer to arrange the transportation of shipments which they are authorized to transport and which they have accepted and legally bound themselves to transport. – 49 C.F.R. 371.2(a)

Freight Forwarder – a person holding itself out to the general public (other than as a pipeline, rail, motor, or water carrier) to provide transportation of property for compensation and in the ordinary course of its business –

(A) assembles and consolidates, or provides for assembling and consolidating, shipments and performs or provides for break-bulk and distribution operations of the shipments;

(B) assumes responsibility for the transportation from the place of receipt to the place of destination; and

“The difference between a carrier and a broker is often blurry . . . The law determines status according to the services offered by an entity, rather than by its corporate character or declared purpose.” Delta Research Corp. v. EMS, Inc., 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18353(E.D. Mich. 2005)

Brokers are liable to shipper/customer for the obligations assumed under the contract

General default rule is that broker is not covered by strict liability regime for loss or damage to goods of the Carmack amendment (49 U.S.C.§ 14706) [but see Ameriswiss Technology, LLC v. Midway Line of Illinois, Inc., 888 F.Supp.2d 197 (D.N.H. 2012)

However, broker is liable for state law claims and thus assumes responsibility to exercise due care in selection of carriers (but see Ameriswiss)